They — and Toads — need to be looking to the Satellite Ballroom in Charlottesville as well. And they need to remember that that they have an WRIR in town that promotes that music and several colleges worth of potential patrons that they could tap into. It’s nice. There are two new state-of-the-art venues in town and people will still have to travel to hear the best in TODAY’s music, from Yo La Tengo to Fiery Furnaces to the always-incredible Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings (all coming to the Satellite in the coming months). It would be nice if these guys would tap into the kind of musical diversity that other neighboring communities take for granted. If they rely solely on classic rock and the Fridays After Five-type stuff, it’s time to start playing taps for them.

It’s nice to have older patrons taken care of, and I applaud the programming of hip-hop along with the classic rock. But there are two new state-of-the-art venues in town and people will still have to travel to hear the best in TODAY’s music…

Commenting on Don’s entry about the Satellite Ballroom in Charlottesville, WRIR, local universities et al.

I disagree that one has to still “travel to hear the best in TODAY’s music.” The artists that you listed, “from Yo La Tengo to Fiery Furnaces to the always-incredible Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings” all are playing at that smaller venue because medium-sized venues like Toad’s Place can’t usually make any $$ unless people come out to those shows in good numbers (at least 500 tickets sold). Also, the relationship between WRIR and Toad’s is tremendous and VCU, VUU and UR community are their biggest consumers.

I actually think that Toad’s Place has done a tremendous job of booking a diverse range of acts since its inception…which has been less than six months in operation and much less since having an ABC license. If you look at the line-up, it is representative of the many musical genres and different demographics that any venue needs to cater to survive in Richmond and be successful.

The National group is certainly going to provide competition to Toad’s to be sure. It will probably have 25-50% crossover with Toad’s for acts booked for a 1,500 person venue. It may have to cater to an older crowd based on its location and the fact that it is a renovated “theater” setting.

The difference between the two groups, though, is that Turning Point Development (Toad’s) was always interested in bringing that type of venue to the City of Richmond. The National group does not really care about the City…evidenced by the fact that their preference was to put together a venue at the former Mulligan’s in Henrico County on Broad Street (they tried for 2 years) because they didn’t believe in downtown Richmond. But after the county didn’t want that type of business, they felt that they had no other option but to come to the city for the historic tax credits. If things don’t work out for the Nat’l…I’m sure some of the same smart politicians and supportive bigwigs involved with the Arts in Richmond will bail them out so that they can use their foray into Broad Street redevelopment as a true “real estate” play.

The following is a pretty comprehensive list of acts seen so far at Toad’s Place representing various musical genres including classic rock, reggae, folk, blues, jazz, country, punk, ska, metal, r&b, soul, funk, pop, bluegrass, indie rock, hip-hop and gospel…